Endings
The Binding of Isaac features an epilogue and eleven endings as of the latest version with the Christmas update. Epilogue This video is seen and unlocked upon first defeating Mom in The Depths 2. In it, the story of The Binding of Isaac at first appears to come to a close that parallels its Biblical source. It is in the same style as the intro and drawn by Isaac himself. In it, his mother corners him and is about to sacrifice him, when the Bible falls off a shelf above her, hitting her and knocking her out. The narration references an angel intervening on God's behalf at the last moment, which is how Abraham's hand was stayed in the Biblical story as well. It is interesting to note that the Bible in the epilogue knocks Mom out in one hit, considering the same is true of the item of the same name when used on Mom, Mom's Heart or It Lives ingame. However, as this is only Isaac's idea of how the story should've ended, the video then switches to a different perspective where Isaac has just put up his latest drawing on the wall. The door crashes open and his mother is in the doorway, brandishing her large kitchen knife, then the video fades to the credit sequence. The first ten endings After defeating Mom, The Womb 1 and 2 are unlocked. Defeating Mom's Heart nine times and It Lives for the first time unlocks these endings. Most of them feature item acquisition. In order: *Isaac opens a huge golden chest he finds after defeating Mom's Heart. After rummaging for a bit, he reveals Judas' fez, indicating that the character has been unlocked. *He finds the Noose and promptly hangs himself with it. *He picks up the Nail, stabs himself with it, turns into a demon and flies away. *Isaac finds the Quarter in the chest. *He picks up the Fetus in a Jar. In the next shot, he does a dramatic Super Meat Boy-esque turn to reveal himself wearing Dr. Fetus' costume and holding the jar. *Mom's voice calls out to Isaac from within the chest as he opens it. Her giant hand reaches out, grabs Isaac and pulls him inside. This ending marks that "Everything is Terrible" has been unlocked, making the game somewhat more difficult. *Isaac finds the Wafer. *He puts on the Money=Power glasses and reveals a golden tooth. *Instead of Isaac finding anything in the chest, It Lives drops from the ceiling, screams and then grins, announcing that the boss has been unlocked and replaced Mom's Heart. *Probably the most story-relevant ending of the original game, this video has Isaac find a dead blue child in the golden chest, who then gets up, turns his head and smiles at Isaac to his shock. Notably, ??? who is unlocked with this ending is not just Isaac wearing a costume, unlike all the other unlockable characters. The Sheol ending With the Halloween update, Sheol and this currently "true ending" were added to the game. It is unlocked by defeating Satan. McMillen has already announced, however, that the addon Wrath of The Lamb will install a new and final "true ending". In this ending, Isaac opens the golden chest he found after the boss fight. Rather than taking anything out of the chest, Isaac stands in front of it, flashing through the various characters and locations (Isaac in sheol, Cain in the basement, Maggy in the caves, Judas in the Depths, Eve in the womb and a demon-Isaac back in Sheol, ending with Isaac in his room) he has dressed up as (as well as Isaac in a demon form), before turning back into Isaac. ??? is notably missing from this sequence. Stepping into the chest, looking over his shoulder towards the closed door, Isaac closes the lid to hide from his mother. There is a lot of interpretation going on with these endings and different explanations have been proposed. One interesting theme, however, is with the role of the golden chest in several of these endings as well as a loading screen displaying Isaac trapped within, breathing heavily. In ending 6, Mom's hand reaches out and pulls Isaac into the chest, in ending 9, a cyanotic, possibly suffocated dead child is found within and in the Sheol ending, Isaac himself steps into the chest to hide, possibly indicating that Isaac is indeed ??? after being trapped in the chest for some time, co-operating with the between level cutscene. The Wrath of the Lamb ending After defeating the game, we see Issac again reading a bible. He stops and sees his demonic reflection in the mirror. Believing that he is indeed corrupt and full of sin, he accepts his fate and prepares to lock himself up in his toybox. This ending possibly shows example of Christian guilt, he feels as though he is sinful and evil and is admitting it to himself. A lot of the themes are child neglect, and﻿ self demonizing. Edmund has confirmed on his formspring account that the Wrath of the Lamb ending comes before the Sheol ending chronologically, meaning Isaac contemplates his sin before finally stepping into the chest. Trivia *The sound effect that can be heard as Isaac flashes through his different incarnations in the Sheol ending is the same as the sound effect used in McMillen's game Time Fcuk when switching to a different layer. *The fifth ending with Isaac finding Dr. Fetus' costume is a reference to the Dramatic Chipmunk meme. *After Ending 10 , The Ending song changes to a haunted version of the "Jesus loves me" hymn. The Wrath of the Lamb 1.3 The Chest Ending If you defeat Isaac in Cathedral holding "The Polaroid" you get in the new Rooms called "The Chest". There the final Boss is ???. After you defeat him, you get the REAL final ending, ending 13. ATTENTION EXTREME SPOILER: ("get in the box" can be seen at the end, either not the end or link with Time Fcuk?)